Why is the United Nations not more effective on global environmental challenges? The UN Charter mandates the global organization to seek four noble aspirations: international peace and security, rule of law among nations, human rights for all people, and social progress through development. On environmental issues, however, the UN has understood its charge much more narrowly: it works for "better law between nations" and "better development within them." This approach treats peace and human rights as unrelated to the world's environmental problems, despite a large body of evidence to the contrary. In this path-breaking book, a leading scholar of global environmental governance critiques the UN's failure to use its mandates on human rights and peace as tools in its environmental work. The book traces the institutionalization and performance of the UN's "law and development" framework and the parallel silence on rights and peace. Despite some important gains, the traditional approach is failing for some of world's most pressing and contentious environmental challenges, and has lost most of the political momentum it once enjoyed. The disastrous "Rio+20" Summit laid this fact bare, as assembled governments failed to find meaningful agreement on any of the most pressing issues. By not treating the environment as a human rights issue, the UN fails to mobilize powerful tools for accountability in the face of pollution and resource degradation. And by ignoring the conflict potential around natural resources and environmental protection efforts, the UN misses opportunities to transform the destructive cycle of violence and vulnerability around resource extraction. The book traces the history of the UN's traditional approach, maps its increasingly apparent limits, and suggests needed reforms. Detailed case histories for each of the four mandate domains flag several promising initiatives, while identifying barriers to transformation. Its core implication: the UN's environmental efforts require not just a managerial reorganization but a conceptual revolution-one that brings to bear the full force of the organization's mandate. Peacebuilding, conflict sensitivity, rights-based frameworks, and accountability mechanisms can be used to enhance the UN's environmental effectiveness and legitimacy.

Regularly amended and updated since its entry into force, this agreement contains the conditions under which dangerous goods may be carried internationally. This revised version is based on amendments applicable as from 1 January 2023.

This volume covers the Middle East from Algeria to Yemen, presenting and interpreting events from the preceding year. The book provides information on the United Nations and all major organizations in the region and can be used as a reference resource by those studying the business of this area.

This comprehensive Commentary provides an in-depth analysis of each of the 31 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, as well as the 10 Principles for Responsible Contracts. It engages in both a legal and contextual examination of the Principles alongside their application to real world practices at both the domestic and international levels. Key Features: One of the first detailed considerations of each of the Principles for Responsible Contracts Contributions from more than 40 leading international academics and practitioners in the field Discussion of legal and regulatory instruments as well as case law emanating from the Principles Offers information on interpreting, analysing, and using the UNGPs and the Principles for Responsible Contracts in a centralized accessible format. Practitioners, including government officials, who are responsible for corporate governance and human rights issues will find this Commentary invaluable for its systematic analysis of the obligations of both States and corporations. It will also be of interest to academics and those working for NGOs in the area of business and human rights, as well as businesses themselves looking to incorporate sustainability initiatives into their corporate practices.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) entered into force in November 1994. This insightful book offers in-depth appraisals of the contributions of jurisprudence to this major achievement of international law, tracing the impact that courts and tribunals have had on the development and clarification of various provisions of UNCLOS over the past quarter-century. Exploring the most pressing issues and recent developments concerning the oceans, leading authors discuss the influence of jurisprudence in fields ranging from fisheries to navigation and deep seabed mining, paying particular attention to the impact of dispute settlement in the law of the sea. While many questions remain unresolved, the specific case studies in this book show that courts and tribunals have made significant contributions to key legal concepts, as well as filling regulatory gaps left by UNCLOS. This authoritative and timely work will be of great interest to students and scholars working in public international law, and most particularly law of the sea. Its attention to statute will greatly benefit practitioners including judges, counsels and consultants in international litigation, and its practical approach will capture individuals working for relevant international organizations and NGOs. Contributors include: N. Bankes, L. Bautista, A. Chircop, R. Churchill, M.D. Evans, A. Jaeckel, O. Jensen, S. Lee, R. Lewis, M.L. Mcconnell, A. Serdy, K.E. Skodvin

This cutting-edge book illuminates the key characteristics of inclusivity in mediation during armed conflicts and post-conflict peacebuilding. Daisaku Higashi illustrates the importance of mediators taking flexible approaches to inclusivity in arbitration during armed conflicts, highlighting the crucial balance between the need to select conflicting parties to make an agreement feasible and the need to include a multiplicity of parties to make the peace sustainable. Higashi also emphasizes the importance of inclusive processes in the phase of post-conflict peacebuilding. Higashi draws on first-hand experience as a team leader for reconciliation and reintegration in UNAMA, as well as interviews with leaders in conflicting states and UN missions, and recommends various roles for the UN, neighboring states and global powers in mediation during and after armed conflicts. Utilizing extensive field research and analysis, the book focuses on conflict regions in Afghanistan, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and East Timor to demonstrate the significance of addressing inclusivity in mediation and peacebuilding with different approaches. Engaging with a range of empirical sources to make key policy recommendations, this book is crucial reading for practitioners working in mediation and peacebuilding, particularly UN officials, think-tank experts, government officials and NGOs. It will also benefit scholars and students of political science and international relations in need of unique, real-world accounts of global mediation, peacebuilding and conflict management.

Despite the high frequency of their interactions, the policy coordination process between the United Nations (UN) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been underexamined in global and regional governance and ASEAN studies literature. To chart this important terrain, this incisive book contributes to scholarship by investigating UN-ASEAN policy coordination in the case of trafficking in persons (TIP). Guangyu Qiao-Franco advances a conceptual framework designed to explore the coordination between the UN and ASEAN, based on theories of policy transfer, norm diffusion, regime complex, and institutional interaction. By examining an extensive case study that traces developments in Southeast Asian regional governance since the early 1980s, this book contains rich information on the UN and ASEAN's TIP policies, lobbying and involvement of various actors, and the specific historical contexts of regional policy debates. Featuring analysis based on empirical data collected through 79 interviews with key participants in the TIP policy process across Southeast Asia, the book reveals the black box of ASEAN policymaking that has led to positive changes in human trafficking governance. This dynamic book will interest students and scholars of international relations, law, criminology, and migration studies. Its consideration of how disparate regional states might collaborate on human trafficking issues will further benefit practitioners and professionals working in governments of ASEAN member states, international organisations, and NGOs.

2020 marks the 50th year of the coming into force of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Convention 1967 and the formal establishment of WIPO. This unique and wide-ranging Research Handbook brings together eminent scholars and experts who assess WIPO's role and programmes during its first half-century, as well as discussing the challenges facing the organization as it enters its second. This comprehensive Research Handbook explores the history and development of WIPO from its conception, through the changing of its mission over time, to its current position as a largely self-financing specialized UN agency. Chapters examine WIPO's education and technical assistance programmes, its relationship with the WTO, its interaction with emerging economies and WIPO's role in treaty interpretation and substantive and procedural harmonization. The Research Handbook on the World Intellectual Property Organization will be a key resource for scholars of trade and development, and intellectual property. It will also be of value to intellectual property practitioners, government officials and non-governmental organizations concerned with intellectual property, trade, development, and human rights issues and advocacy. Contributors include: T. Aplin, M. Blakeney, A.F. Christie, G. Davies, G. Dinwoodie, R. Dreyfus, A. Duxbury, M. Ficsor, S. Frankel, D. Gangjee, D. Gervais, R. Giblin, J. Ginsburg, I. Heath, A. Kur, J. Liedes, D. Lindsay, A. Quaedvlieg, J. Reichman, S. Ricketson, A. Taubman, S. von Lewinski, K. Weatherall, R. Xalabarder, P.K. Yu

Brice Dickson examines the engagement of the United Kingdom with international human rights monitorin1g mechanisms, in particular those operated by the United Nations and the Council of Europe since 2000. Dickson explores how these mechanisms work in practice and whether they have any identifiable impact on how human rights are protected in the UK. By analysing the role that monitoring mechanisms are meant to play in enforcing human rights standards, and the UK's commitment to that role, Dickson considers in turn the work of general monitoring mechanisms, mechanisms focused on civil and political rights or on social and economic rights, and mechanisms assessing discrimination based on gender, race, age or disability. The book demonstrates that, while monitoring mechanisms certainly play a crucial role in holding the UK government to account, crediting them with enhancing the protection of any specific right is problematic. Providing a comprehensive study of the operation of international human rights monitoring mechanisms, this book will be an insightful resource for human rights law students and scholars, particularly those concerned with civil, social and non-discrimination rights. Academics interested in public international law and politics will also benefit from this text.

Through the lens of five institutional functions - quasi-legislative, quasi-judicial, recommendatory, empowering and sanctioning - this important book assesses the practice and legal foundations of the United Nations General Assembly in advancing international justice, an increasing priority of the international community. Challenging the assumption that the General Assembly is merely a weak deliberative assembly, Michael Ramsden shows that its pioneering resolutions on international justice have become an invaluable tool in the fight against impunity. As concerns remain over the aptness of international institutions in responding to atrocities, particularly the Security Council, this book establishes the legal foundation for the General Assembly to step into the breach. Chapters also offer innovative arguments on the General Assembly's institutional powers to end impunity as well as a detailed examination on the influence of General Assembly resolutions in judicial decision-making. International Justice in the United Nations General Assembly will be a key resource for scholars and students in the fields of international law and international institutional law, as well as UN and international institutional practitioners who are involved in policy development.

The permanent five (P5) members of the United Nations Security Council ? China, France, Russia, the UK, and the USA - have a firm duty to prevent genocide in light of the due diligence standard under conventional, customary, and peremptory international law. This perceptive book explores the positive obligations of these states to act both within and without the Security Council context to prevent or suppress imminent or on-going genocide. John Heieck successfully argues why the duty to prevent genocide is not only a customary, but also an absolute norm of international law, and analyses the scope of the due diligence standard regarding the duty to prevent genocide. In doing so, he considers the ramifications of this on the actions of the P5 members of the Security Council, both within and outside of this eminent body. Significantly, Heieck proposes a legal test for identifying jus cogens norms, and explores the effect of these on the actions and omissions of specifically identified members of the United Nations (UN). Topical and insightful, A Duty to Prevent Genocide will be an important read for both academics and students of international law and politics who wish to further understand the legal nature of the duty of the P5 members to prevent genocide. It will also provide valuable insights for policymakers of the P5 member states.

Since its establishment the work of the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has been subject to many interpretations, with differing theories proffered and conclusions drawn. This comprehensive guide, from an author with an intimate knowledge of the organisation, dissects every aspect of the UNHRCs work examines the efficiency of, and interactions between, its mechanisms. The book also offers a meticulous overview of the structure and functions of the Council and its processes, providing readers not only with a clear and practical guide, but a platform from which to formulate their own opinions and conclusions. Key Features: Authored by the first Secretary of the UNHRC Unique practical insights from a UN insider Explanation of the complex decision-making processes of the Council UNHRC procedures described within the overall context in which they operate Highlights vital, but hard to access, UN and UNHRC documents and references Clear and accessible, this informative book will be a key resource for NGO's, diplomats, UN officials and other participants in UNHRC proceedings, whilst also being valuable to human rights students and academics seeking to broaden their understanding of UNHRC operations.

'The field of international criminal justice owes its growth more to practice than to theory. Hugely important theoretical questions have often been given short shrift. But not by Gabriel Lentner. In an accessible style and on the basis of wide reading, he addresses head-on one of the most fundamental theoretical questions pertaining to the International Criminal Court: what is the legal nature of referrals made by the United Nations Security Council to the ICC of situations in states that are not parties to the Statute? He illustrates the significance of that question with supreme verve. A most promising debut.' - Sarah M.H. Nouwen, University of Cambridge and Pembroke College, UK Drawing on both theory and practice, this insightful book offers a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the International Criminal Court (ICC), centered on the referral mechanism. Arguing that the legal nature of the referral must be conceptualized as a conferral of powers from the UNSC to the ICC, the author explores the complex legal relationship between interacting international organizations. With a novel approach to the relationship between the UNSC and the ICC, this book addresses important questions raised in practice. In particular, Gabriel M. Lentner explores issues regarding any limits and conditions for referral under the UN Charter and the Rome Statute, and the legal effects on heads-of-state immunity, as well as the validity of jurisdictional exemptions for other specific categories of nationals. This is a persuasive study into the powers of the UNSC with respect to international criminal law. With its timely focus on an important topic, this book will be vital reading for academics in international institutional law, international criminal law, and human rights law. ICC judges and lawyers, as well as lawyers involved in the UN, governments, and non-governmental organizations will also benefit from this book.

This book evaluates the national implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in ASEAN. Working with country-specific research teams, the contributors compiled detailed case-studies of CRPD implementation in each country in ASEAN. This book presents a detailed overview of the problem, the relevant literature, and the conceptual framework, and then it explores the implementation of the CRPD in each of the ten countries in Southeast Asia. Details include the factors that influenced each country to ratify the CRPD, the focal point structure of implementation, the independent mechanism established to monitor the implementation, and the civil society organizations involved. This book also evaluates the implications of CRPD implementation for human rights and development in ASEAN, including the degree of institutionalized support for persons with disabilities, the development objectives of the CRPD against the strategic objectives of the ASEAN economic community and the broader ASEAN community, and the way these developments compare with those in other countries and regions. Working with country-specific research teams, the editors compiled detailed case-studies of CRPD implementation on each country in ASEAN. This book presents a detailed overview of the problem and the relevant literature. The contributors also offer conclusions on the research and national and ASEAN-level recommendations for moving forward.

The United Nations in International History argues for a new way of examining the history of this central global institution by integrating more traditional diplomacy between states with new trends in transnational and cultural history to explore the organization and its role in 20th- and 21st-century history. Amy Sayward looks at the origins of the U.N. before examining a range of organizations and players in the United Nations system and analysing its international work in the key arenas of diplomacy, social & economic development programs, peace-keeping, and human rights. This volume provides a concise introduction to the broad array of international work done by the United Nations, synthesizes the existing interdisciplinary literature, and highlights areas in need of further research, making it ideal for students and beginning researchers.

This exceptional volume examines international security issues by way of case studies of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Each of these raises significant issues concerning the use of force between states and the role of the United Nations in maintaining international peace and security. Alex Conte examines international terrorism and the intervention in Afghanistan, including the controversial policy of pre-emptive strikes in the war on terror, and discusses the role adopted by the United Nations in the political and economic reconstruction of states subjected to conflict. Analyzing events in Iraq since 1990, he assesses the legality of the current war and leads to an examination of the role of the UN in maintaining peace and security and possible options for reform and accountability. The study will be a valuable guide for all those keen to understand the use of international law and the United Nations in the first two major conflicts of the 21st century and their implications for the future role of the United Nations.

In a growing number of instances after the cold war, the United Nations and other international actors have sought to rebuild or establish new political institutions in states or territories recovering from violent conflict. From Afghanistan, Iraq, and the western Balkans to less prominent wars in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central America, and the South Pacific, the international community's response involves extensive intrusions into the domestic affairs of sovereign states. Extending beyond the narrow mandates of traditional peacekeeping and humanitarian relief operations, these interventions aspire to reconstitute local power within a democratic framework. Democratic Peacebuilding examines the evolution of international peacebuilding during this tumultuous period, identifying the factors that limit the progress of international actors to institutionalize democratic authority and the rule of law in war-shattered societies.
Based on extensive field research, the book gives particular attention to Afghanistan's Bonn Agreement process (2001-2005) and Post-Bonn period (2006-2009), in which the country's multiple, competing forms of authority (e.g. religious leaders, tribal elders, militia commanders, and technocrats) challenged efforts to create "modern" forms of political authority rooted in democratic norms and the rule of law. Despite the significant risks involved, Democratic Peacebuilding argues that the institutionalization of democratic legal authority can create the conditions and framework necessary to mediate competing domestic interests and to address the root causes of a conflict peacefully. At the same time, one overlooked problem of international peacebuilding stems from the divergent conceptions, between international officials and the local population, of authority and its sources of legitimacy. By helping a conflict-affected society reconcile the inherent tensions between competing forms of authority and, over time, deepen democracy--rather than lower the metrics for progress and conditions for exit, international peacebuilders can contribute to improved conditions for governance and a reduction in intra-state political violence. This examination of the peacebuilding-democratization nexus in war-torn societies aims to generate new insights for scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners in both the study and practice of politics and international relations.

There hardly seems to be a global issue in the world today in which the United Nations (UN) is not expected to play a key role. And indeed, despite a persistent gulf between high expectations and the UN's capacities, the organization continues to be a unique and indispensable actor in areas such as peace maintenance, human rights protection, and development. Thoroughly revised and updated, the second edition of this highly acclaimed text provides a concise analysis of the UN, its structure and work, achievements and shortcomings, and its likely role and prospects in the twenty-first century. The new edition covers the latest institutional and structural developments - including the creation of the Peacebuilding Commission and the establishment of a permanent Human Rights Council - and reflects recent debates on UN reform.

A new international standard of national accounts is being implemented worldwide under the auspices of the United Nations. The New National Accounts is an authoritative introduction to this new system and provides a comprehensive explanation, with illustrative data, of the accounts and accounting concepts that all countries will use in the future. The book assumes no previous knowledge of either economics or national accounting. Beginning with an overview of the entire structure of the new system of accounts, both for flow transactions and their derived balancing items and also for stocks of economic assets and liabilities, Dudley Jackson explains the system's main balancing item - gross value added - and its relation to gross domestic product, to final expenditures, to primary incomes and to transfer payments. The book concludes by explaining the accumulation accounts and the resulting 'wealth of the nation' as recorded in the new system's balance sheets. The New National Accounts will be essential reading for both students and practitioners concerned with macroeconomics, economic policy, national accounting and comparative studies of the economic performance of advanced and developing countries.

Peace operations are the UN's flagship activity. Over the past decade, UN blue helmets have been dispatched to ever more challenging environments from the Congo to Timor to perform an expanding set of tasks. From protecting civilians in the midst of violent conflict to rebuilding state institutions after war, a new range of tasks has transformed the business of the blue helmets into an inherently knowledge-based venture. But all too often, the UN blue helmets, policemen, and other civilian officials have been "flying blind" in their efforts to stabilize countries ravaged by war. The UN realized the need to put knowledge, guidance and doctrine, and reflection on failures and successes at the center of the institution.
Building on an innovative multi-disciplinary framework, The New World of UN Peace Operations provides a first comprehensive account of learning in peacekeeping. Covering the crucial past decade of expansion in peace operations, it zooms into a dozen cases of attempted learning across four crucial domains: police assistance, judicial reform, reintegration of former combatants, and mission integration. Throughout the different cases, the book analyzes the role of key variables as enablers and stumbling blocks for learning: bureaucratic politics, the learning infrastructure, leadership as well as power and interests of member states. Building on five years of research and access to key documents and decision-makers, it presents a vivid portrait of an international bureaucracy struggling to turn itself into a learning organization. Aimed at policy-makers, diplomats, and a wide academic audience (including those working in international relations, peace research, political science, public administration, and organizational sociology), The New World of UN Peace Operations is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the evolution of modern peace operations.

The Syrian war has been an example of the abuse and insufficient delivery of humanitarian assistance. According to international practice, humanitarian aid should be channelled through a state government that bears a particular responsibility for its population. Yet in Syria, the bulk of relief went through Damascus while the regime caused the vast majority of civilian deaths. Should the UN have severed its cooperation with the government and neglected its humanitarian duty to help all people in need? Decision-makers face these tough policy dilemmas, and often the "neutrality trap" snaps shut. This book discusses the political and moral considerations of how to respond to a brutal and complex crisis while adhering to international law and practice. The author, a scholar and senior diplomat involved in the UN peace talks in Geneva, draws from first-hand diplomatic, practitioner and UN sources. He sheds light on the UN's credibility crisis and the wider implications for the development of international humanitarian and human rights law. This includes covering the key questions asked by Western diplomats, NGOs and international organizations, such as: Why did the UN not confront the Syrian government more boldly? Was it not only legally correct but also morally justifiable to deliver humanitarian aid to regime areas where rockets were launched and warplanes started? Why was it so difficult to render cross-border aid possible where it was badly needed? The meticulous account of current international practice is both insightful and disturbing. It tackles the painful lessons learnt and provides recommendations for future challenges where politics fails and humanitarians fill the moral void.

The 2021 International Trade Statistics Yearbook, Volume I -Trade by Country - provides a condensed and integrated analytical view of the international merchandise trade, and trade in services up to the year 2021 by means of brief descriptive text, concise data tables and charts. The information presented in the publication give an insight into the latest trends of trade in goods and services of around 175 countries (and areas) in the world. The yearbook is also made available online at https://comtrade.un.org/pb/. For more detailed data, users are requested to go to UN Comtrade (http://comtrade.un.org) which is the source of the information presented in the Yearbook, and is continuously updated. The publication is aimed at both specialist trade data users and common audience at large. The presented data, charts and analyses will benefit policy makers, government agencies, non-government organizations, civil society organizations, journalists, academics, researchers, students, businesses and anyone who is interested in trade issues. The information and analyses are presented in a way which can be comprehended by non-expert users of statistics.

The United Nations Disarmament yearbook has been a rich source of historical knowledge on developments, trends and achievements of multilateral disarmament for more than 30 years. In early Spring of each year, Part I of the Yearbook is published containing an annual compilation of text and statistics on disarmament-related resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly. In early Autumn, Part II is published presenting the main topics of multilateral consideration during the year, along with a convenient issues-oriented timeline. This year, volume 38 (Part II): 2013, with a foreword by the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, summarises developments and trends in 2013 on key issues of multilateral consideration at the international and regional levels; reviews the activity of the General Assembly, the Conference on Disarmament and the Disarmament Commission; and contains a handy timeline of highlights of multilateral disarmament in 2013.

When the Wall Street banker takes the side of the indebted developing countries in his feature articles reviewing the impact of the global sovereign debt crisis of the 1980s in the Dutch daily NRC-Handelsblad, it is time to leave banking. He is attracted to Unicef's vision and goal of Health for All and its tireless pursuit of structural economic adjustment programmes with a human face. In Africa, Boudewijn Mohr jumps into Unicef's hands-on work in the field. He spearheads the clearing of landmines in Unicef project areas in Mozambique, and engages with children throughout his travels on the continent. Thus he can be found playing football with former child soldiers in Monrovia; touring Nouakchott with street children who show him the tricks of pick pocketing; or gate crashing a diamond mine that exploits child labour near Kenema in the rebel-infested east of Sierra Leone. His stories are both an adventure and the search of fulfilment but at the same time a call to all those who want to do more and are uncertain of what the world holds. Part of the proceeds of this book are going to 'Hands-Up Foundation', a British charity working with Syrian doctors and nurses in Syria under harsh circumstances.